TV Special on Alzheimer's

HBO is airing a multi-platform series on Alzheimer's beginning May 10 (check local listings). With the mission to increase money and research to find a cure, HBO will attempt to persuade viewers via 24 documentaries, 15 short films, a book, a website (www.HBO.com/alzheimers) and even a community outreach program. Maria Shriver, the executive producer of "The Alzheimer's Project," argues that Alzheimer's is an epidemic and the cost of not finding a cure is dramatic. The show also looks at the science aspect of Alzheimer's, by investigating 25 leading researchers and physicians and their respective labs and clinics, as well as, discussing some of the 90 different clinical trials that offer hope to Alzheimer sufferers.

- NeuBrain

Read more about it http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090503/hl_nm/us_alzheimers;_ylt=AlWwV6bkBLAzTzUxT6tgiJPVJRIF
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Theory: Taking Vitamin D When Young May Prevent MS

Researchers have known for some time that Multiple Sclerosis risk increases significantly the farther from the Equator. Although there may be some other interesting variables that may attribute to this latitude relationship, the prevailing thought is diminished seasonal sunshine along with more indoor activities contribute to less bodily vitamin D production and thereby triggering MS. Researchers have now shown that a gene variant that triples the risk of getting MS is sensitive to vitamin D. As a consequence, researchers postulate that if there is too little vitamin D at a young age then the gene variant eventually malfunctions. Future studies will likely explore sunlight exposure with this gene variant and more importantly if vitamin D supplements at a young age can reduce MS risk itself.

- NeuBrain

Read more about it at http://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/news/20090206/vitamin-d-may-cut-multiple-sclerosis-risk
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Vitamin D Suppresses MS

A small study presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology showed that average high doses of vitamin D supplement of 14,000 International Units (IU) a day for a year cut Multiple Sclerosis relapse risk by 41%. These results contrast with MS specialists' commonly recommended vitamin D dosage supplements of 1,000 IUs - 40% of MS sufferers experienced a relapse at that lower, but still high, dosage. Some other key points from the study.

1. High dosage MS sufferers experienced 41% less relapses than a year before the study.
2. High dosage participants did not suffer any significant side effects.
3. The study participants had a mild form (1.25 score) of relapsing MS and had it on average of 8 years.
4. High dosage participants were given 40,000 IUs daily at onset and then dosages were scaled down to average 10,000 IUs daily for the year.
5. Recommended vitamin D dosages for healthy people run from 200 to 600 IUs daily.
6. Study participants took 1,200 milligrams a day of calcium supplements.

Vitamin D seems to suppress and diminish the autoimmune response and production of rogue T lymphocytes attacking myelin sheaths. Researchers expect MS specialists to start recommending higher vitamin D dosages in the coming year, except to MS sufferers susceptible or experiencing kidney disease.

- NeuBrain

Read more about it at http://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/news/20090428/high-doses-vitamin-d-cut-ms-relapses
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Think Smarter by Improving Your Memory

So you what to think smarter? Well research is showing an interesting way to improve your fluid intelligence, your smarts, by improving your working memory. Although seeming unrelated processes, researchers presented their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that brain exercises targeted at improving working memory also increased fluid intelligence, reasoning and problem solving, test scores; These fluid intelligence test scores did not require memory use, nor did the testers study beforehand, but they did train their cognitive memory capacity. The more training the more the testers' scores improved from the researchers findings. Researchers theorized that shared neural networks were involved in these different processes. So would that explain why card counting improves overall gambling performance returns beyond just the statistics of knowing what was dealt to determining more effectively the odds of what could be dealt?

- NeuBrain

To read more about this see http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20080428/boost-memory-to-increase-intelligence
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